The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

"Let me entertain you."

Writer: Stephen Wyatt

Format: Novel

Released: December 1989

Series: Target 144

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace

Synopsis

'Creepy', thought Ace. You never saw the clown's real face...

But the Doctor insists on entering the talent contest at the Psychic Circus, the self-proclaimed Greatest Show in the Galaxy. 

What has reduced Segonax to an arid wasteland? Why have the happy-go-lucky circus people stayed here so long, and why are they no longer happy? And what is the sinister truth about the Ringmaster and his robot clowns?

The Doctor and Ace need all their death-defying skills in the Big Top to uncover a brooding, ancient evil that has broken the spirit of the Circus and demanded the sacrifice of so many lives. 

Verdict

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was a very decent novelisation of the serial of the same name! This one obviously comes towards the end of the televised run for the Classic era with only four stories to come after it, but this definitely feels like something that would work in the modern era, even in prose. I like this story and a lot and isn't a huge amount of time since my last viewing during lockdown, but one thing that was clear to me after finishing the novelisation is that this story works best with visuals and audio. I think that's not too surprising given the whole circus setting and the sheer imagery and design that goes into the story. The focus on numerous circus acts is good but prose is not where that kind of thing shines. It works so much better on television which is a shame. For example, whilst they look magnificent on the cover of the book I don't think the shift of the ordinary family into the stone-like Gods of Ragnarok is as big of a moment as it should be. For me, it's a memorable design but it wasn't described too well in prose. I thought throughout that whilst the story was presented absolutely fine, the author was not really delving into the realms of expansion as is so typical with the Target novelisations. This just felt like a simple retelling of the story to readers who were familiar with the televised version. There's nothing wrong with that at all, but I think that's part of why my rating dropped from the on screen format. Now, into the story itself and I like how things start with the Doctor and Ace in the TARDIS and the junk mail advertisement luring the Doctor in. Right from the off it was clear he had something of an ulterior motive as is so common with this incarnation, and Ace just seemed to accept that. She wasn't as bothered as she would be in numerous other adventures. The stall holder was a fun character to showcase the stature of the Psychic Circus to the locals of Segonax and the irony of her business relying on passers through heading to the misfit attraction but her distain for those types of people was tremendous. So simple but really effective. Nord was a good character for Ace to stand up to and getting to know him a little before he perished in his failure to entertain the Gods was nicely done. I thought the story of Bellboy and Flowerchild was more effective in prose and definitely had an emotional attachment as they'd escaped from the Psychic Circus. The Chief Clown was out for them though and he was a sinister villain. I think that was heightened by how much fear Ace had for clowns in general. That's really intriguing considering how little actually scares her on her travels along with the tendencncy for explosives. Bellboy's sacrificing himself so there would be nobody to repair the robots was an incredibly powerful scene I must say. The Ringmaster was fun but I don't think the brilliant rhyming and song introductions for each act were as effective on the page. That's just a consequence of the format unfortunately. One thing I will say is that I don't think this was the author's greatest attribute as he was clearly not wholly comfortable with writing prose. There was a lot of repeated description which got tiresome, as did Captain Cook! Gosh he was annoying with his constant name dropping of his travels in almost every instance. Mags was the star of the show and I love how she eventually stood up to him and sided with the Doctor. Cook was incredibly selfish in using the moonlight effect to show her wolf-like true nature, but it worked well and injected some strong action. The Doctor's belief in her was wonderful to see. The ending is done well with the action and the Doctor's final performance is fun, although it does go on a bit! The Circus imploding is a pretty emphatic finale and I really enjoyed circling back to the stall owner considering how she would make a living now. Overall, a good little read! 

Rating: 7/10